Maurício Kakuei Tanaka

Translator EN 🇺🇲 <> PT-BR 🇧🇷
TED Translators Language Supervisor
AI Dubbing Specialist

High school at Colégio Palmares in São Paulo

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP)

Degree in Translation and Interpreting from Associação Alumni

Postgraduate degree in Audiovisual Translation from Estácio University

During his college years, Maurício was a teaching assistant for Logic, Probability and Statistics, and received a scholarship from CNPq.

Maurício worked for over 20 years in the insurance and IT departments at Itaú Unibanco as a programmer, systems analyst, and systems engineer. He was a bass singer in the Itaú Unibanco Choir for 10 years, under the baton of conductor Roberto Rodrigues.

Maurício has been a TED translator since 2017, with over 2,300 subtitling projects published on TED, including transcripts of TEDx talks in English and Brazilian Portuguese, translations of TED, TEDx, and TED-Ed talks from English to Brazilian Portuguese, versions of TEDx talks from Brazilian Portuguese to English, and revisions of work by other volunteers in the TED Translators program.

He practices Pilates and dances samba rock, samba de gafieira, hip-hop, vanera, sertanejo, and forró regularly.

His story at Carnival: Maurício has been parading for three years in samba schools in São Paulo. He has paraded twice with X-9 Paulistana (2024/2025) and once with Camisa Verde e Branco (2024), Independente Tricolor (2025), Colorado do Brás (2025), and Tradição Albertinense (2024). In 2025, Maurício paraded on the Independente Tricolor float and was the harmony and wing coordinator for Tradição Albertinense. In 2026, he made his debut at Império de Casa Verde and Saudosa Maloca.